How do pit stops work?

Once I stopped at the pits, do I really need to click everything I need and then click to start pit stop?
Is there any other way to enable automatic pit stop during the race or before the race? or clicking during pit stop is the only way?

I think clicking during pitstop is the only way at the moment. The current pitstop system is just a temporary measure because the online community was losing the rag over not having any pit stops whatsoever.